In the first 4 weeks we will be focusing on looking at different ways artists and photographers have explored their own, or other families in their work as visual storytellers.
Some explore family using a documentary approach to storytelling, others construct or stage images that may reflect on their childhood, memories, or significant events drawing inspiration from family archives/ photo albums and often incorporating vernacular images into the narrative and presenting the work as a photobook.
Documentary approach > recording life as it is > camera as witness
Documentary is storytelling through a series of images of people involved in real events to provide a factual report on a particular subject. Read more here Documentary Photography
Larry sultan vs Richard Billingham > artists photographing their parents > straight photography vs snapshot aesthetics > formal vs informal.
Sian Davey vs Sam Harris > artists photographing their children > classic vs spontaneous > environmental portraits vs observational portraits
Tableaux approach > constructed or staged narrative photography
Tableaux is a style of photography where people are staged in a constructed environment and a pictorial narrative is conveyed often in a single image, or a series of images that often makes references to fables, fairy tales, myths, unreal and real events from a variety of sources such as paintings, film, theatre, literature and the media. Read more here Tableaux Photography
Anna Gaskell vs Hannah Starkey > childhood vs adolescent > memories vs fairytales > literature vs cinema
Alfonso Almendros vs Maria Kapajeva > family reflections > memories > childhood
Archival approach > photographs, moving image, sound recordings, documents and objects from public or private archives, such as family history, diaries, letters, financial and legal documents, photo-albums, mobile devices, online/ social media platforms. Archives can be a rich source for finding starting points on your creative journey. This will strengthen your research and lead towards discoveries about the past that will inform the way you interpret the present and anticipate the future. See more Public/ Private Archives
Rita Puig-Serra Costa (Where Mimosa Bloom) vs Laia Abril (The Epilogue) > artists exploring personal issues > vernacular vs archival > inside vs outside
Carole Benitah (Photo Souvenirs) vs Pete Pin > family > identity > memory > absence > trauma
Ugne Henriko (Mother and Daughter) vs Irina Werning vs Chino Otsuka > re-staging images > re-enacting memories
Read article in The Guardian
Week 1, 2, 3 & 4 : 5th – 30th Sept
Explore different approaches to family photography
Use PLANNING-TRACKING-PERSONAL INVESTIGATION-AUTUMN-TERM for a full overview of what you are required to do in the next 11 weeks. You are required to self-monitor your progress and will be asked to upload Tracking-Sheet with an update on a weekly basis to your blog.
TASKS > produce a number of appropriate blog posts
PRACTICE > PHOTO-ASSIGNMENTS
- Documentary: make one environmental portrait using a family member. Complete by Fri 15 Sept.
- Tableaux: construct a childhood memory in a photograph. Complete by Mon 25 Sept.
- Archive: produce a montage that must include an archival image from your family/ personal photo- album. Complete by Mon 2 Oct.
RESEARCH > ANALYSIS: As starting points for your tasks, choose to look at a comparative study of the pairing of artists references above in each area of Documentary, Tableaux and Archive.
Write a thoughtful evaluation of each artists and consider how their work is referencing the theme of family – discuss the subject-matter, content, concept, context, construction, composition, camera, then compare, contrast and critique. Ask yourself: What? Why? How?
Remember to MAKE YOUR BLOG POST VISUAL and include relevant links, podcasts, videos where possible.
ARTISTS REFERENCES: Follow these steps to success!
- Produce a mood board with a selection of images.
- Provide analysis of their work and explain why you have chosen them and how it relates to your idea and the theme of FAMILY
- Select at least 2 key images and analyse in depth, FORM (describe what you see, composition, use of light etc), MEANING (interpretation, subject-matter, what is the photographer trying to communicate), JUDGEMENT (evaluation, how good is it?), CONTEXT (history and theory of art/ photography/ visual culture,link to other’s work/ideas/concept)
- Incorporate quotes and comments from artist themselves or others (art critics, art historians, curators, writers, journalists etc) using a variety of sources such as Youtube, online articles, reviews, text, books etc.
- Make sure you reference sources and embed links to the above sources in your blog post
PLANNING > RECORDING: Plan at least 1 shoot as a response to each photo-assignment above. Show evidence of planning using mind-maps, mood-boards and write a specification with details of how, why, when, where, whom? Be organised and complete one shoot per photo-assignment per week.
DEVELOPING > EXPERIMENTING: Edit shoots and show experimentation with different adjustments/ techniques/ processes in Lightroom/ Photoshop appropriate to intentions. Reflect and evaluate each shoot afterwards with thoughts on how to refine and modify your ideas i.e. experiment with images in Lightroom/Photoshop, re-visit idea, produce a new shoot, what are you going to do differently next time? How are you going to develop your ideas?
EXTENSION: Explore your own family/ personal archives such as photo-albums, home movies,letters, boxes and make a blog post with a selection of material that will inform and develop your Personal Investigation. For example. you can focus on the life on one parent, grand-parent, family relative, or your own childhood and upbringing.
- Either scan or re-photograph archival material so that it is digitised and ready for use on the blog and further experimentation.
- Plan at least one photo-shoot and make a set of images that respond to your archival research above and/ or Personal Investigation.